The Nov. 14 tricolour tribute happened, coincidentally, nine years after B.C. Place janitorial contractor Pritam Kaur Sandhu collapsed on shift and died later in hospital. I reported in 2009 that stadium management and Sandhu’s employer, Modern Cleaners, withheld the incident from WorkSafeBC — despite rules requiring the immediate reporting of a worker’s death to the provincial workplace health and safety regulator.

Speaking of Paris, the Conference of the Parties 21 — aka, the United Nations climate change convention — is Nov. 30-Dec. 11. It will be the world’s biggest gathering of political leaders and industrialists in 2015, under the guise of saving the planet. Modest proposal: delay the climate change talks to next year, and change the subject matter of the Paris meetings. The events of Nov. 13 reminded us that there are more important and immediate things than what may or may not happen to the environment a century from now.

The UN is relying on a report by some of the world’s top scientists who reached consensus that, on the balance of probabilities (not beyond reasonable doubt), humans are influencing an uptick in global temperatures.

Meanwhile, the world has gone far beyond the tipping point, with far too many innocent men, women and children still dying in wars, rampage shootings, and jihadist terror attacks. Whether it’s Sandy Hook, Syria, or the city by the Seine, enough is enough. Now is the time to convene the world’s top experts in science, education and law, and policy makers and world leaders to chart the way forward for a more peaceful planet.

Redirect the effort and investment in fighting climate change to halting the poverty and ignorance that fuel hate.

If all the children on this planet were adequately fed, clothed, housed and educated — as they were supposed to have been by this year — chances are there would be more happy and healthy humans, less likely to engage in wanton violence like that which horrified the world in the City of Light on Friday the 13th.

Prior to the start of Sat night’s ( Nov 14-2015 ) Montreal Canadians home game their management held a moment of silence in memory followed by dimming of the arena lights, then lighting up only the ice surface with a waving French flag it was acompanied by playing the French National anthem ( La Marseillaise ) in is entirety. Lit only by the waving flag and scattered cellphone lights the stirring song was loudly cheered by the SRO crowd. There was no announcement of what was going to take place but I knew they would do something special which is why I tuned in.
Once again the Hab’s set the standard when it come’s to tributes. The other televised games only held a moment of silence.